It’s not often that you get to say something like “Lewis and Clark RPG,” right? Not Lois and Clark, but LEWIS and Clark, the famous explorers from American history, who did a whole lot of exploring, have a trail named after them, and will always be associated with Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who traveled with them to serve as guide and translator.

The Meriwether Kickstarter project has 50 hours to go to get as far past the initial funding goal (which it hit today) as it can to help fund even more historical awesomeness, like special outfits for Lewis that raise his stats, the addition of a Girardoni Air Rifle, an endless arcade mode, and a bizarre nightmare dreamscape extra bonus level with giant sloths and wooly mammoths.

While they had me at historical RPG that I will be able to play on my Mac, the wooly mammoths sound pretty awesome and should be worth a donation or two, don’t you think? The bonus dream level will sum up how many Americans thought of the unexplored territories that Lewis and Clark explored. Also? Who knew that Lewis’ first name was Meriwether? Not me!

At the time, Americans thought of those lands the same way we might imagine a science-fiction world: filled with lush, bizarre plants, merciless superpredators, and people whose customs, appearance, and language were so different from their own, they seemed almost alien. To help embody that thinking, we want Lewis to have a dream before he actually heads out where all of America’s unconscious fears are portrayed. You’ll hunt wooly mammoths and giant ground sloths, council with Welsh-speaking Indians, and climb a mountain made entirely of salt, among other phantasmagorical challenges. History meets fantasy in this level where Lewis must master his trepidation and find the courage to voyage into the unknown!

To donate, or just read more about this fascinating use of gaming technology to explore history, check out the Merriweather Kickstarter page and be sure to watch the pitch video at the very top.